Ted Prize for 2012 awarded to City 2.0

This year’s TED Prize, by giving the award to an idea instead of a person as is usually the case, recognizes the potential and urgency of developing new ways of thinking about our cities.

Why is TED awarding the 2012 TED Prize to an idea and not a person? Because this is an idea capable of inspiring collaborative actiion by millions of people. Urbanization is one of the century’s biggest issues. Over the next 90 years, we will build more urban living space than in all prior centuries combined. We had better get it right.

They are challenging the world’s thinkers to take part in a much needed multidisciplinary effort to re-imagine how the globe’s population will form communities that reduce energy, protect the environment, encourage positive economic activity and generally improve the quality of life for its inhabitants.